UNESCO says all of Tasmanian forest to stay protected

June 23, 2014

Approximately 5,000 Tasmanians attend a rally to oppose the delisting of Tasmania's World Heritage forests in Hobart, Tasmania on June 14, 2014

The UN's cultural body on Monday rejected a controversial Australian attempt to revoke World Heritage status for parts of the Tasmanian Wilderness, which would have opened them up to loggers.

Delegates at UNESCO's World Heritage Committee voted to turn down the request at a gathering in Doha, where they are considering additions and changes to the UN list of cultural and natural wonders.

Australia's conservative government asked UNESCO to revoke its World Heritage listing for 74,000 hectares (183,000 acres) of the forest, claiming the area was not pristine.

One of the last expanses of temperate wilderness in the world, the forest covers nearly 20 percent, or 1.4 million hectares, of the southern island state.

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott believes too much forest is locked up and favours more access for loggers.

The area slated for delisting is part of 120,000 hectares added last year to the Tasmanian Wilderness area under the previous Labor government—the culmination of a long battle waged by environmentalists.

Up to 5,000 people protested against the attempted de-listing outside Tasmania's state parliament in Hobart on June 14.

Earlier at the Doha gathering UNESCO warned Australia that another of its World Heritage sites—the Great Barrier Reef—could be put on an endangered list if more is not done to protect it.

Related Stories

Prime Minister Tony Abbott was accused Wednesday of mounting "a massive assault on the environment" after he warned too much Australian forestry was closed to logging and there were enough national parks.

Australia is home to some of the most pristine environment on Earth, but two of its most high-profile protected areas face threats to their status as World Heritage Sites at a UNESCO meeting starting Sunday in Doha.

Recommended for you

At the end of the Pleistocene period, approximately 12,800 years ago—give or take a few centuries—a cosmic impact triggered an abrupt cooling episode that earth scientists refer to as the Younger Dryas.

In a new assessment of nine state-of-the-art climate model simulations provided by major international modeling centers, Michael Rawlins at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and colleagues found broad disagreement in ...

New research confirms that the land under the Chesapeake Bay is sinking rapidly and projects that Washington, D.C., could drop by six or more inches in the next century—adding to the problems of sea-level rise.

The world's deserts may be storing some of the climate-changing carbon dioxide emitted by human activities, a new study suggests. Massive aquifers underneath deserts could hold more carbon than all the plants on land, according ...

Wildfires in California's fabled Sierra Nevada mountain range are increasingly burning high-elevation forests, which historically have seldom burned, reports a team of researchers led by the John Muir Institute of the Environment ...

0 comments

Please sign in to add a comment.
Registration is free, and takes less than a minute.
Read more

Click here to reset your password.
Sign in to get notified via email when new comments are made.